“Catch the thief! Don’t let her go!”

A girl ran through the streets of London. Her long silver hair waved with the wind while she did his best to escape from her pursuers.

She was barefooted and wore tattered but clean clothes. It was obvious with just a glance that the girl did not have a place to call home.

Her body was short, at most 1.65 meters tall, but it only helped her to leave behind the people chasing after her more easily. Her blue eyes did not show panic despite the shouts coming from the people in the surroundings; instead, she seemed sure and confident that she was going to escape.

And her confidence was not unfounded.

As if she were a cat, she moved deftly through the streets; making use of alleys, obstacles and the people around her to lose the people chasing after her.

Moreover, she was fast.

Her petite body moved at great speed, and quickly, she left the men chasing after her far behind.

“Damn! How is she so fast!”

“It’s not the first time that she steals something! We have to catch her this time!”

“Don’t let her escape! Hurry up!”

Hearing the shouts of rage coming from behind her, she let out a brief smile before her face returned to one of indifference.

Then, after running for five minutes, she finally came to her hideout.

It was an abandoned building, located on the outskirts of the city. Long ago, this place was filled with beggars and homeless people, but they all were chased out by the police fiercely and from then, nobody else dared to come here.

Fortunately, the girl was smart enough to escape when she noticed something wrong and waited until the moment when the cops left to return. She thought that the beggars would return a few days after the cops left; but to her surprise, they failed to return.

From then, she had been living here alone.

The girl, however, did not care about living alone. Instead, she found it convenient. After all, the first thing that she learned when she left the orphanage, is that you can’t trust anyone on the streets.

For her, being alone was better.

… Or almost alone.

“Lily? I brought food!”

With a soft voice, the girl shouted to the surroundings and called the companion that had been with her from the day when she left the orphanage.

But nobody answered.

Worried, she began to search around the building.

“Lily? Where are you, Lily?”

Walking through the old corridors, the girl searched for her partner carefully despite the lack of light.

At that moment, she heard a sound behind her.

“Meow!”

“Ack!”

With a cry of surprise, the girl spun around quickly and found a beautiful silver cat seated behind while it licked its paw.

“Lily! Don’t scare me!”

“Meow!”

“I’m not easy to surprise! It’s you who is hard to find!”

“Meow?”

“No. It’s not because I’m a human and you are a cat…”

“Meow? Meow!”

“Sigh… No, humans are not stupid…”

Shaking her head, she grabbed the silver cat on her arms and carried it towards her room.

“I was lucky this time Lily. Look all the things I got... bread, milk, fruits, cat food… Yes, it’s the one that you like. I was lucky that the shop owner was distracted for a moment.”

“Meow!”

“Yeah, you can eat all that you want.”

With a small smile, she took a plate from an old cabinet and cleaned it with a bit of water that she got in the city. Then, she opened the bag of cat food and filled the plate with it.

Then, without waiting for the cat to begin eating, she took a piece of bread from the things she stole and put it in her mouth.

When the girl escaped from the orphanage, she found that living alone was not so easy as she thought. Many people carried bad intentions towards her, and if not because she always was wary towards strangers, she would have been buried long ago.

Back then, the lack of food made her think about returning to the orphanage, but she didn’t want to return to that accursed place. Without any idea about what to do, she began to cry.

And while she was crying, Lily appeared.

Lily was just a small cat when the girl first saw it. It had been abandoned by its mother recently and had spent one day without eating anything.

So, when the little cat heard someone crying, it instinctively was attracted towards the sound.

There, it saw a girl.

In the beginning, the girl did not take notice of the cat, but when it let a soft meow, she moved her gaze towards it.

With her eyes filled with tears, she gazed to the small ball of silver fur fixedly.

Then, with a soft movement, she took it in her arms.

“You also were abandoned, little thing?”

Perhaps because the color of its fur was the same as her hair, the young girl took a liking to the cat from the first time when she saw it.

So, she decided to raise it.

It was hard at the beginning, and the girl sometimes was unable to find food for herself or the cat; but despite it, she insisted.

The cat was her only friend, and she made sure that it had always something to eat. She made her best to protect it, even when a beggar tried to kill it to make a soup.

And now, four years later, it continued being her only friend.

The kitty from back then became a beautiful cat, and the little crybaby became a strong young woman.

Looking towards the cat, she finished eating her bread quickly and stretched out her body to relax her muscles. Then, she walked towards an old couch in a corner of the room and lied down with a yawn.

When the silver cat saw it, it ran quickly and jumped on the couch. Lying down beside the girl, it meowed softly and closed its eyes.

“Goodnight, Lily.” The girl said gently.

“Meow…”

Closing her eyes, the girl patted Lily's head twice and put a small smile.

In her chest, a small heart-shaped pendant shone softly.

In it, something was carved.

A&A.

Aya, it was the girl’s name.